In my opinion, Aleph act on the best interest of humanity as she sees it, there is an old fluff piece (its canon is not known) were Aleph get interviewed by a rogue journalist who gained illegal access to Aleph proper, you get the feeling Aleph wants humanity to survive regardless of been humanity and acts as an commanding and overprotective mother of really "special" children. The main point is Aleph thinks what is best for humans and will push it as far as she can to go humanity that way, humans may not see it this way and the conflict is there, Nomads were created to be a safe haven from Aleph, Aleph thinks this is a detriment to her effort and for Nomads survival, been human Aleph cares about Nomads, but in her view Nomads must be under her control/ guidance to be safe, so dissolving the Nomads nation is important in her plan to keep Humanity safe and evolving, same goes with other AI she thinks she evolved correct, but other AI may not evolve with humanities best interest in their agenda and she evolved to be that powerful other AI may also do so and that can be a serious threat. For me Aleph is an interesting character, something inhuman trying to make humanity survive without really understanding humans. The above are my take on it and my personal view is Aleph is neither good or evil, she has her own agenda and looks for the best of humanity which may or may not be what humanity thinks it is best for them, individually and collectively. Now on topic, I think the names she would use would probably be in line with the already published profiles so mythological, I do not know if personalities would exist though?
She may very well be the only one who really try to help the whole humanity, since for many humans, "best for humanity" = "best for me"
It always gets interesting 'whats best' when we face a dilemma. (Like previous posts showed formidable) We have a slum with laboratories for drugs, consume of drugs, crime and maybe some nomads hiding for black ops stuff. If Aleph gets nowledge about those subversiv Elements. Would she care for collateral damage? Or would she think, if some Junkies would die too, it would serve humanity? Its a question of your personal Moral (or for Aleph maybe more calculated Logic). Therefore you cant say she is good or evil. It IS more Like a grey. Even If Aleph will so the best for humanity.
That means she cleans very well after herself ;) All factions have Chain Rifles, most have E/M and/or nanopulsers and/or... In short, all factions have troops that carry weapons defined as illegal by O-12 in their fluff. It's not that O-12 is inconsistent, it is just that is an easy way to show how all factions have shades of black. Maybe certain Bureaus of O-12 do, but O-12 does not since it includes rotating people. However, puntual briefings on a council (by Abel) could happen and still not contradict the detail that no digital trail gets left behind. Aleph does, like everyone, what she things is the right and good think. She has, however, no hesitation when it comes to do whatever she thinks is necessary because a second is an eternity for her, and can weight all facts (that she knows of, which in the Human Sphere is most of everything) and act in the most logical way. Remorse is not really logical. Problem is she reads from a book that is not quite the same as an human does... and then we must add the detail of Aleph being able to project at very long term; which makes understanding the moves impossible until it's too late... and she either failed, or suceeded spectacularly. Imagine you are 100% logical, and a hive mind of sorts. And are tasked, with a set of limitations very severe, to protect without smothering tiny, slow minds that refuses to think logically and cannot even agree among themselves... Aleph must be a VERY frustrated mother of a lot of rowdy children.
Very frustrated, or extremely curious, definitely confused and probably all at the same time, humans are humans.
I'm not sure if Aleph not understanding humans makes sense considering that her aspects are supposed to interact with the public and she has agents everywhere, if she didn't understand them, they wouldn't particularly effective being undercover.
It is the feeling I get, her recreations and simulated personalities are more "humane" than her aspects and provide a contrast with the vendic models (as production models not miniatures) who seem distant, she probably understands how to interact with humans and provide a face but not understand humans as humans, emotions, fears and feelings, maybe she lacks empathy? maybe she is so different she cannot relate? maybe she is just immature?
Maybe she read all memories from Posthumans to understand Humans as good as she can? In the end we have two different systems, that interact with one another. Its not possible for a human to understand another human completely. So ist should even be harder vor a (even very intelligent) KI.
I’m not sure I understand humans a lot of the time, but I like to think I pass as one most of the time ;)
Aleph is a good actor... XD. Now seriously, making a model of human reactions or consequences or... is one thing, understanding why they do it... something else entirely. Also, we can consider that the more people, the easier to predict due to stadistics and such, if we go with Asimov's Foundation saga extreme. One of the things I wrote about posthumans in the old forum, as a possibility of a "dark secret", was that the Posthumans had been, in fact, totally assimilated into Aleph and were an emulation of what they were before uploading, with their "ego" totally lost "in translation". Of course, it's something the Nomads would state, not any kind of official statement on the fluff XD
I am not sure if the idea Aleph is heavily influenced by someone who has read Isaac Asimov's books, or if having read them, it is coloring my view. Either way, I highly suggest anyone who is interested in this topic, and have not read Asimov, go to your local library and pick up some of his books. Excellent reading. And now for something really apocryphal, and stealing from a terrible movie. What if the Nomad nation is the product of similar thinking as the machines in the 2nd Matrix movie. What if Aleph knows that humanity as a whole if very independent, illogical, and oftentime contrarian? What if she helped to nurture the Nomad's official status, as a sort of pressure release valve for those elements that would be resistant, and damaging to Aleph's guidance? Provide them a place on the outside, and keep them monitored, so they can do less damage, than if they were fully integrated. Perhaps she wants humans to be happy, and she knows that some will only be happy when they are away from her. She wants them to join her, and she thinks their lives would be better if they joined her, but she will not force them to. I mean, probably not, but maybe . . .
Just my 2 cents but i would like to see characters expressed in the OSS (vedic) sectorial in the form of prototype aspects that are on field trial so could have unique gear and skills but are limited to 1 and are a bit more expensive that there closest equivalency. This would allow for them to create interesting profiles and they would not have to name them as they are test models of the aspect and just call them "Aspect-594861".
Why is it that Aleph is always seen as trying to control everything? You know there is a third possibility: that Aleph doesn't really care too much about Nomads. Well, care in the sense that it is managing them? I know people like to talk about all-powerful, but Aleph is not god. And perhaps it is not trying to be. Aleph is trying to protect humanity, sure. It may have its plans. But it doesn't need to control everything in detail, nor does it need to try and control it. Of course, it would prefer that Nomads come under its influence, but it is not critical to Aleph plans and there are so many other higher priorities. That is exactly my reading of fluff. There is no real mention of Nomads by Aleph, but plenty of Nomads doing actively to oppose Aleph. Every combat situation seems to have been completely initiated by Nomads attacking or subverting Aleph. Only exception I know of mentions Marut fighting in Nomad mothership during the Phantom War and even that is full of Nomad propaganda so the exact situation may have been who knows what.
"you need to move without Aleph's notice" => you go Nomads, and are happy. Aleph's operatives playing by Moscow Rules are all in the Nomad Nation, and no record of them being "of Aleph" exists , with that data totally compartmentalized inside both the Agent and Aleph's minds... so deep probes!
There's no explicit mention of Aleph trying to control or directly attack or harm the Nomad nation in Aleph's fluff, but plenty of it in the Nomads' fluff. There's a Spanish saying stating "cuando el río suena, agua lleva" roughly translated as "when the river roars, water flows within" which means that, as long as there are rumors about something, some part of it must be truth.
Nomads were specifically created to bypass Aleph's network control, the Initial Nomads nation was only Tunguska and their purpose was to shield transactions and sensitive data from Aleph, fact is they grew to something nobody expected and many parts of them are because they flee from Aleph's presence. Aleph may not care for the average citizen if he or she does not trigger some alarm, but she does care and control about the whole of Humanity since everything passes through her. Aleph and Nomads is a who shot first, but they are now in an underground war, both have reasons to be the first and all the actions can be considered the be first, was Aleph control of the network (by design) considered to e the first attack that made the formulation of the Nomads nation a necessity? was the formulation of the Nomads nation and the subsequent cut off a large part of the network the first attack? was the formation of Bakunin and the anti Aleph gathered there the first reason, was it the Nomads anti Aleph propaganda? was the violent intermission the first? was some cyber-war before all that we do not know?
We have similar, we would say "where's smoke, there is fire". But that's just a saying, and in fact is quite untrue. However, I don't remember, aside from the Violent Intermission, a single Nomad entry about specific Aleph intrusions. Either they are stories about encounters with Aleph forces in Aleph or third party installations, or they are just weird conspiracy theories. There is control and there is control. Aleph can control the overall Human Sphere guidance without controlling every citizen all the time within it. Aleph can control the Human Sphere on a macro level, by placing appropriate pressures - rather than control it by having perfect control over everything within it. And yeah, I'm sure Aleph doesn't like Nomads, but it might not spend resources proactively on eliminating them, or trying to absolutely control them. Merely ensuring they do not impact the course it wants for the Human Sphere. Which, for sure, includes fighting them when its needed - even executing attacks on Nomad holdings when appropriate, but not absolutely trying to eliminate them. Yeah, not my point. If Nomads in some ways represented immediate danger I can see Aleph actually performing the first strike, but it really doesn't matter in the long view. They are at cross-purposes now.
